THE 'FOLLOW KROPP RACING' STABLE UPDATE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, August 8, 2026

What a way to kick off the new season!

No, we are not talking about the fourteen-and-a-half hour drive from Toowoomba to Townsville … and then back again, but we are talking about what Kropp Racing achieved with that trip north, namely coming away with a Townsville Cup win with the Matt Kropp trained Leg Drive and a Townsville Guimeas runner-up finish with the William Kropp trained Sweet Pretender.

That’s just over a $100 000 prize-money haul for the connections of these two Kropp racing trained runners … that will pay for a bit of petrol ... just eight days into the new season.

The big win, of course, was Leg Drive’s strong showing and determined finish in the Townsville Cup. (See separate story here) MATT KROPP LANDS A BIG WIN IN THE TOWNSVILLE CUP

The undercard feature run by Sweet Pretender was every bit as exciting. The ultra consistent chestnut mare, who has now finished second in four of her last five runs and finished third in the other start in that sequence, has been holding her form superbly since stepping up to the mile again five runs back … always knocking at the door while never finishing more than a little over a length back in her four starts leading into the Townsville Guineas.

That margin did stretch out to 1.93 lengths in the Townsville Guineas, but that was certainly not a disappointing run, given that Seet Pretender did start at odds of $12 in a race where nobody was expected to get close to the $1.24 race favourite Illegal justice, who had already taken out both the Rockhampton Guineas and the Mackay Guineas.

The race did go to script with Illegal Justice dominating the course of events as the betting predicted, but Sweet Pretender, with Georgina Cartwright on board, certainly dug in and took on the task she was presented with, doing well to keep the $6.50 second favourite Bonewood behind her by only 0.03 lengths to claim that second spot, which was arguably the best result possible in the circumstances.

Emphasising the strong effort of the second and third placed runners was the fact that they were 4.15 lengths clear of the fourth placed runner, the $81 chance Taranaga.

Sweet Pretender was only Willaim Kropp’s second starter for the month after Trusty Bandit, who had picked up a third placing in a BM70 Handicap over 2200m at Doomben, a week earlier on the opening day of the season.

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